Thursday, March 1, 2018

REVIEW: Scary Godmother Doll

I don't think any of us, creator Jill Thompson especially, knew that when we fully funded the production of the Scary Godmother doll on Kickstarter in September 2013 that it would not be until four and a half years later that the project finally came to an end with the delivery of the dolls. It's been very interesting watching the birth of the doll step by step and all the little details that had to be tweaked and tweaked and finally approved.

It's been a very long time, but the doll was worth the wait.

She's only 13" tall according to the website, but she's so lithe that she feels taller.

Here she is in her awesome haunted house box.

And the back. I didn't photograph the sides, but there's art there, too.

I opened the bottom of the box for easier removal of the purple liner.

Scary Godmother is seriously strapped down to that liner, so expect to invest quite a bit of time undoing a bunch of twist ties to free her.

Fresh out of the box!

She looks exactly like her art, which you can't say about most dolls and their art.

Her outfit consists of a black bodysuit (with a zipper), a black glittery skirt (with metal snaps), a pair of striped stockings, a pair of shoes, and a hat (elastic strap).

She sits quite easily, although the stockings did have to be broken in a little bit. They're a little restrictive, but not too much.

Her arms hold poses quite well.

She's packaged with her hair tied back with a black rubberband, but I wasn't have that. Those curls need freedom!

Her hair is quite nice. It's rooted, as you can see in the photos.

Love that face. The painting is great.

But the best part...

That profile!

I actually think she's prettiest in profile. I adore her nose.

Her body is highly articulated. There are the standard places of neck, shoulders and hips, but also wrists, ankles, mid-torso AND waist, and double joints at the elbows and knees.

She holds poses quite well, although as I said, the stockings do restrict some of that motion when they're on.

She doesn't feel incredibly fragile, but she is quite thin-limbed, so I wouldn't put her somewhere she could easily be knocked over. She's not playline doll-level sturdy.

See? Very bendy!

I'll put her clothes back on and stop embarrassing the poor thing.

I didn't photograph her back, but she has two round holes where her wings insert. The wings are solid purple plastic. This was the only bit of trouble I had with her. You have to push the round peg on the wing through the hole in the bodysuit and get it to match up perfectly, while keeping the bodysuit material away from both the wing hole in her back and the wing hole in the bodysuit itself. The one on her right shoulder went in easily, but the one on the left was tricky because the holes in the bodysuit didn't quite match up. But I got it after a couple tries.

Here's the skirt. Expect glitter shed.

And the shoes are superb! Love the molding and the paint job.

Scary Godmother has three spooky purses to choose from. the best one is the pumpkin with an actual metal snap closure. The skeleton one is a bit more crude, but has a nice pink lining. The bat is a bit on the rough side. It's not quite the level of accessory you'd expect with a doll this price. It's cute, it's just...rough.

The Boozle!

More Boozle!

I really love her and I'm looking forward to rereading the Scary Godmother stories with her nearby. She is available to purchase on the website for $75. (Kickstarter backers paid $50, so there's a plus to supporting your favorite artists early!) I'll put a link down below.